Mostly About Organized Crime

11/14/2015

On November 14, 1957 state troopers raided the home of Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, NY where Italian crime bosses from across the country were meeting, and the Daily News has reprinted its original story on the legendary bust: "sixty-two top leaders of the dreaded Mafia, ruling crime syndicate of the U.S., were grabbed by federal agents, state police and country cops last night during a top-echelon conclave called to deal with mounting official pressures on their lucrative stranglehold on the nation's purse."

In his recent book Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, The Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting that Unmasked the Mob author Gil Reavill provides the back story on the infamous meeting, and an excerpt is reprinted by the Daily News:

On the agenda: heroin, Cuba, divvying up Albert Anastasia's piece of the pie. Also, the elephant in the room, how best to recognize Vito's status in the overheated, competitive world of the Five Families of New York City.

Genovese's presence overwhelms the gathering. The "Right Man" is sitting right there. He wants to be crowned. He wants the capo dei capi, the boss-of-bosses title. With Costello wounded and out of the way, and Anastasia dead, who is there to deny him?

It doesn't look as though a simple "godfather" label is going to do it for Vito. Maybe just plain "God"? How about that? Would that satisfy his unquenchable thirst for power?

Following the Apalachin bust the FBI in 1958 released its so-called Mafia Monograph by which it at long last definitively recognized that "available evidence shows that beyond the shadow of a doubt, the Mafia does exist today in the United States, as well as in Sicily and Italy, as a vicious, evil, and tyrannical form of organized criminality."

04/21/2015

Federal prosecutor Joseph Soviero allegedly divulged that heroin trafficker Christoforo Rubino had become a cooperating witness against the Mafia which got Rubino whacked and made Soviero $15,000 all courtesy of Vito Genovese as detailed in a prior post.

Rubino was whacked on July 18, 1958, and Soviero resigned his AUSA position for the Eastern District of New York less than two months later on September 12.

Notwithstanding the questionable circumstances by which Soviero left the EDNY he readily had secured another position with New York State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz, and an October 24, 1958 FBI report from the New York field office to Director J. Edgar Hoover alleged that Soviero was raising campaign funds from his mobster friends for Lefkowitz:

[Redacted] advised that he had a conversation with ERNIE DE VITO, a Brooklyn combination man who told him that JOHN MONTANA had been in Brooklyn during the past week and that he saw JOSEPH PROFACI, TUNIO INDELICATO ("the old man" of the Sicilian group at 90 Elizabeth St.), and other unnamed members of the underworld, and also JOSEPH SOVIERO, former AUSA, EDNY. According to the informant, the purpose of the gathering was to raise money for the election of LOUIS LEFKOWITZ who is presently running for re-election to the office of Attorney General of NY State.

Other FBI reports included allegations from separate informants that Lefkowitz had mob ties. For example, "T-14 advised on January 9, 1957, [redacted] LaSalle Music Company, a jukebox rental concern, New York City, who is known to the New York Office as an underworld fixer, had regular contact with New York State Attorney General LOUIS J. LEFKOWITZ." According to a 1970 document from the New York State Liquor Authority, LaSalle Music Company "was controlled by one Francis Breheney, alias 'Kurt' and 'the Irishman'":

The New York City Police Department has informed the Authority that Breheney has a criminal record including arrests for homicide, felonious assaults, grand larcenies, burglaries and coercion; that Breheney was formerly associated with Dutch Schultz, Jimmy Hines, Frank Erickson, Joseph "Socks" Lanza, and Irving Sherman; and that Breheney's associations also include Frank Costello, Harry "Champ" Seigel, and Vincent "Blue Eyes" Alo, who has been convicted for armed robbery. * * * Breheney is believed to be presently involved in loan shark and gambling operations in New York City.

Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz also was "bosom pals" with Genovese mobster Nicholas Rattenni according to an informant's allegations in a 12/24/58 FBI weekly report from the New York Field Office to Director Hoover:

[Redacted] advised on 12/23/58 that NICHOLAS RATTENNI and LOUIS LEFKOWITZ, NY State AG, are "bosom pals" and that the reported investigation of LEFKOWITZ into RATTENNI'S carting business is nothing but a "sham battle."

Informant stated that the Federal investigative agencies' interest in RATTENNI is forcing LEFKOWITZ to keep his investigation into RATTENNI in a pending status.

According to informant, if the Federal Government ceases its interest in RATTENNI, LEFKOWITZ will immediately drop his investigation of the carting business and his alleged interest in RATTENNI.

Lefkowitz was New York's longest-serving Attorney General -- he held the post for 22 years from 1957 through 1978 -- and died in June 1996. Before Lefkowitz became Attorney General he was the go-to liquor lawyer in New York for applicants and licensees before the Liquor Authority. Lefkowitz's law partner Hyman Siegel later was convicted of bribing SLA officials, and Al Scotti, then head of the New York District Attorney's Rackets Bureau, reportedly said that he also had a solid case against Lefkowitz: "I had Lefkowitz in the palm of my hand, but the statute of limitations ran out." The building which now houses the Manhattan District Attorney's Office at 80 Centre Street in New York City is named the Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building.

04/19/2015

On July 18, 1958 heroin trafficker Christoforo Rubino -- a soldier under Joe Profaci but with close ties to Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese -- was gunned down on the sidewalk in front of the People's Regular Democratic Club which he was known to frequent at 130 Central Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Rubino recently had returned to New York to face a narcotics charge after spending two years in Italy as a fugitive.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics alleged that Rubino was responsible for an eighth of all dope distribution in New York, and further told the FBI the following according to a 11/14/58 report:

RUBINO was known to be a close associate of LUCKY LUCIANO and reportedly spent two years, from 1955 to 1957, in close contact with LUCIANO in Italy after RUBINO jumped bail in New York City on the above-mentioned narcotics conspiracy charge. According to information received, RUBINO had gained considerable mob prestige by virtue of his close association with LUCIANO by the time he returned to New York City and surrendered himself on the Government's narcotic charge in December, 1957.

Immediately upon his murder federal prosecutor Joseph F. Soviero Jr., an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn where Rubino had been indicted, issued an inexplicable and apparently unauthorized press release announcing that that the mobster had become a government witness, and was scheduled to testify the following week before a grand jury which would provide "a full blueprint on the operations of the narcotics racket, including names and places." Only two weeks earlier a grand jury for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan had indicted Vito Genovese and others on heroin charges.

The FBN vehemently denied that Rubino was slated to testify before a grand jury as a cooperating witness which, of course, was the responsible public position even if not true.

Soviero resigned his AUSA position on September 12, 1958, and on September 18 an informant advised the FBI that the federal prosecutor received $15,000 from Vito Genovese for tipping off the mob to Rubino's cooperation according to a 11/13/58 letter from the New York field division to Director J. Edgar Hoover:

With relation to the July, 1958, murder of CHRISTOFORO RUBINO, a hoodlum reportedly closely connected with LUCKY LUCIANO, and at the time of his murder under indictment in a Federal narcotics conspiracy case in the EDNY, information was received from [redacted] regarding an allegation made by two Brooklyn hoodlums that members of the Brooklyn underworld had received information from a "DA" in connection with the narcotics case in which RUBINO was named as a defendant. During subsequent contacts by this informant with these hoodlums, information was developed that the "DA" was named SOVIERO. This informant also learned that members of the underworld had suspected that a few racket people might be ready to do some talking and that the killing of RUBINO was able to serve as a lesson to others who might have a tendency to inform.

It is noted that immediately following RUBINO'S murder, AUSA JOSEPH SOVIERO, JR., EDNY, issued a press release to the effect that RUBINO was scheduled to appear before a Federal Grand Jury in Brooklyn within a week from the time he was murdered and was expected to be a cooperative witness regarding the operation of the narcotics ring in question.

[Redacted] later advised during Sept., 1958, that a source told informant that SOVIERO "got some heat from someone in the government" and had left the USA’s office for fear of trouble and questioning. Informant was also told at this time that SOVIERO was going to work for the State of NY as an attorney. In the course of informant's conversation with his hoodlum sources, informant was told that SOVIERO had been given a quiet dinner a short time before in Manhattan, NY, at which time SOVIERO was given $15,000. The informant was told that the money paid SOVIERO had been furnished directly by VITO GENOVESE.

It was subsequently determined that JOSEPH SOVIERO had resigned from the USA'S Office, EDNY, on 9/12/58 and took employment in the office of NY State Attorney General LOUIS J. LEFKOWITZ.

A 10/24/58 report from the New York field office to Director Hoover further included allegations from the informant that Soviero was raising campaign funds from his mobster friends for Lefkowitz:

[Redacted] advised that he had a conversation with ERNIE DE VITO, a Brooklyn combination man who told him that JOHN MONTANA had been in Brooklyn during the past week and that he saw JOSEPH PROFACI, TUNIO INDELICATO ("the old man" of the Sicilian group at 90 Elizabeth St.), and other unnamed members of the underworld, and also JOSEPH SOVIERO, former AUSA, EDNY. According to the informant, the purpose of the gathering was to raise money for the election of LOUIS LEFKOWITZ who is presently running for re-election to the office of Attorney General of NY State.

Soviero ultimately went into private practice. In 1995 he was convicted on a tax charge, and in 1998 disbarred for conversion of client funds. Apparently the disgraced lawyer retired to South Florida, and died last year.

And Vito Genovese? He was convicted in 1959 for trafficking heroin, and died in prison a decade later. Maybe Genovese headed the welcome wagon for Soviero when the latter finally arrived in hell.

02/28/2015

Decades before the Gambino and Bonanno families used pizza parlors as fronts for heroin trafficking the Genovese family was using its gay bars in Greenwich Village to move the addictive narcotic according to the new book The Mafia and the Gays by Phillip Crawford Jr. which is available as a Kindle e-book or a trade paperback. The book relies in part on recently-released FBI documents, and an excerpt provides:

The right-hand man to Vito Genovese was Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, and he allegedly oversaw the crime family's gay bar rackets and heroin trafficking operations in Greenwich Village during the 1950s. A June 1960 FBI report on Anthony Strollo provides: "the principal activities in this group were reportedly the importation and wholesale distribution of narcotics and the ownership and operation of restaurants, bars, night clubs and after-hour establishments." The report further alleges that the drugs were run out of the clubs, and states "Joseph Cataldo, with alias 'Joe the Wop,' reportedly operated Tony Pastor's night club as part of the syndicate and supplied narcotics to several out-of-town customers." Innocenzio Stopelli or "Johnny the Bug" was another major trafficker for the Genovese family, and federal agents with the Bureau of Narcotics frequently spotted him at Tony Pastor's Club at 130 West 3rd Street. The liquor authority later revoked its license according to a March 18, 1967 article ("Liquor License Is Revoked At Tony Pastor's Night Spot") from The New York Times because the operator "permitted the licensed premises to become disorderly in that it permitted homosexuals, degenerates and undesirables to be on the license premises and conduct themselves in an offensive and indecent manner."